Seven Months
by kawaii kokoro
Summary: Seven months is a long time, and yet not long enough. KakaIru, drama, one-shot


Disclaimer: Kishimoto's creation, not mine.

Warnings: KakaIru. Not betaed. With run-on sentences. And, tenses and subject-verb agreement seem to hate me.

**Seven Months**

"Bye, Iruka-sensei!"

Iruka smiled and gave a small wave as his last student, a little blonde pig-tailed girl, ran out of the classroom, her long bright hair bouncing against her head. The exuberant pre-genin ran past the door and Iruka listened as the childish laughter and echoing footsteps grow faint. The lazy orange rays of the setting sun filled the now quiet classroom, illuminating the lone figure standing in the middle of it.

Iruka began picking up some of the mess the children had left during the day's lesson. Paper shuriken, some crumpled balls of paper (with interesting doodles of the tanned sensei), and broken pieces of crayons were thrown in the wastebasket at the corner of the room. A small yellow eraser and an empty bento box were carefully placed inside the side drawer of his desk, where all other lost and found items were located. He believed Miyo-kun will be approaching him about his forgotten lunch box early next morning.

When he was finished cleaning the mess, Iruka sat on the chair by his desk, and pulled out his planner to start on his lesson plan for the next day. When that was done, he pulled out the quiz papers his class had that morning and started correcting them.

By the time the pile was finished, it was already dark outside. Iruka stared at the window for a while longer before sighing.

_Better get back to an empty home..._

Iruka cleared his desk and placed his take-home work in his leather satchel. He turned around to face the blackboard and noticed that he had forgotten to erase the day's lesson. Grabbing the eraser, he swiftly cleaned the board, brushing against the green surface with long even strokes. When he reached the end of the blackboard, he gently placed the eraser down on the wooden ledge and palmed a kunai.

Iruka swung his body around, kunai fisted in his right hand, before the thin side of the weapon stopped against a familiar pale throat.

Wide brown eyes met a single lazy gray one.

"Kakashi..." the chuunin murmured.

The lone eye curved, the black mask obscuring the lower half of its face stretching to reveal a silhouette of a smile. "Yo, Iruka-sensei."

Iruka carefully tucked his weapon back in his hip pouch, his eyes never straying away from the other man's face. _He is here, he is finally back, he came back..._

Iruka's heart felt like it was trying to get out of his chest, its frantic beats loud as it echoed behind his ears. He stepped back a bit, the smooth surface of the blackboard hard and solid against his back.

Kakashi watched the myriad of emotions on the open tanned face. Relief, happiness, affection, sadness, fear... everything was caught by the intense gray eye.

Seven months. Kakashi had been gone for seven months. He had spent a good half of it in a cold, dark cell with nothing else to do but think. More than three months should have been enough to get his thoughts in order. Yet, it was still too short. He realized a lot during his capture but there were still many unanswered questions nagging in his mind. And, the only one who could answer it was the man standing in front of him.

The silver-haired jounin quickly grabbed Iruka's arm, wrenching it away from behind him and disrupting the hand signals for a transportation jutsu. There goes his last chance of escape. With that firm grip in his arm, there was no way he can go now. But he was not ready; he was not yet ready for this. Seven months were not enough...

lruka swallowed the lump on his throat, his eyes finally straying away from the other man and into the open window. He stared at the darkened skies before shifting to the tall building of the Hokage tower, illuminated by the lights from inside open windows.

"Please, Kakashi... Let it go..." Iruka whispered, _pleaded_, to the other man.

The gray eye softened. There was only one emotion etched on that tanned face now – pain. Kakashi didn't want to see that expression on the sensei's face again. Especially when he was partially to blame for its appearance.

"I'm sorry, Iruka. I'm... really sorry." Kakashi loosened his grip on the arm but still can't make himself to let go entirely.

Iruka closed his eyes. That defeated voice totally broke his heart. He felt a prickling sensation behind his eyes. _No! I will not cry! No more..._

Iruka felt Kakashi lean closer to him before he felt soft lips touch his left cheek. The chuunin choked back a sob, his free hand gripping the blackboard's ledge so hard that his knuckles turned white. He felt helpless as a tear escaped his tightly closed left eye, before trickling down his cheek.

Kakashi felt the soft moisture against his lips, coating it with the salty liquid. His heart clenched, he had just made Iruka cry. God, can't he do anything right?! Without thinking, he slowly grazed his lips against the wet trail, going up to the source. When he reached the corner of the chuunin's eye, he heard another muffled sob and fresh tears touched his lips. A heavy lump formed in his throat. _I'm such an idiot..._

"I'm really, really sorry, Iruka..." the jounin whispered against the moistened skin. Kakashi relinquished his hold on the chuunin's arm, stepped back a bit, before disappearing into a burst of smoke. Without the other man's warmth, Iruka suddenly slid down to the floor and wept openly, his soft sobs echoing in the empty classroom.

-----*****-----

AN: Umm, wow. I have no idea where this came from. This is my first Naruto fic, first KakaIru, and first attempt at drama/angst (I'm not really sure if it's angsty enough, but this is the first time I've written something with this amount of drama)! And, boy, am I nervous about posting this… Anyway, it's a one-shot because I have problems with finishing multi-chaps. Just fill in the blanks with your own lovely imagination. After all, KakaIru fans definitely have creative imaginations for loving a pairing that has almost non-existent interaction in the series!XD And, we do LOVE them, ne? Thanks for reading and reviews, comments and constructive criticisms are very much appreciated! :D


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